The Cost of Pennsylvania's Education Failures

Lawmakers are considering providing school choice to low-income children trapped in violent and failing schools. While some lawmakers are concerned about the cost of school vouchers, the cost of educational failure for all taxpayers through welfare, corrections, and lost jobs is many times greater.

High School Dropouts Hurt Our EconomyAccording to research from the Alliance for Excellent Education, more than 34,300 Pennsylvania students from the class of 2010 dropped out of school at great cost to themselves and their families. The lost lifetime earnings from just one year of dropouts totals $8.9 billion.

Improving educational outcomes creates a wave of economic benefits. Cutting that number of dropouts in half for this single high school class could result in tremendous economic benefits. More than 17,000 "new graduates" would add:

$173 million in yearly earnings,

$128 million in consumer spending,

$383 million in home sales,

14,000 new jobs,

$217 million in economic growth, and

$18 million in state tax revenues.

If the high school dropouts who currently head households had earned their diplomas, families would have accumulated an additional $2.9 billion in wealth.

More Graduates Reduce Corrections and Welfare Spending When we fail to provide students an adequate education, we are preparing many for incarceration, costing the taxpayer $38,090 per inmate in fiscal year 2010-11.

According to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, 43% of male inmates and 36% of female inmates do not have a high school diploma or a GRE.